A common problem that plagues women as they get older is arms that lose definition and become saggy. A lot of women take it into their own hands and either do research to find exercises that burn upper arm fat or hire a professional to directly address the problem. The principle to losing fat is simple: be in a constant energy deficit, ie. finish the day with more calories lost than taken in. Unfortunately, many women find that although they successfully lose upper arm fat, they are left with sagging skin. Is it possible to get rid of it?

Even though it might seem that the upper arm skin and the fat that caused the arm to droop in the first place are two separate components to an annoying problem, they can be addressed by the one solution: revving up your metabolism. Rylan Duggan, renowned personal trainer and self-proclaimed “problem part expert” residing in British Columbia, Canada, says this about eliminating sagging upper arm fat: “By focusing specific attention on all the muscles of the arms (not just simply the triceps), you will cause the loose and sagging skin to form back to the connective tissue surrounding the muscle, and eliminate the drooping.”

So how exactly do you supercharge your metabolism? If you’re a fitness nut, then you might be aware of the commonly-held belief that cardiovascular exercise is used to burn fat. Cardio is characterized by long, boring and repetitive exercise that more often than not, results in not as much fat lost as you wanted to and more muscle lost than you would have wanted to lose. Fewer people are aware that you can actually use cardio-based exercises to help increase your metabolism (Pg 19).

Instead of spending more than half an hour traveling at a leisurely pace, do this:

1. spend 5 minutes at the leisurely pace, then

2. the next 10-15 minutes at a consistent, fast pace, then

3. another 5-10 minutes “warming down” back at the leisurely pace.

You can do this with any form of cardio that you’re comfortable with: running, cycling, rowing, etc.

This unique twist on the traditional cardio workout and from a very simplistic point of view helps to increase your metabolism via a two-fold effect:

1. if you exercise long at too comfortable a pace, as soon as the workout ends, the fat burning stops.

2. if you exercise at a pace that’s too intense, you won’t be able to work out for long enough to maximize fat loss. However, by doing cardio at an intense pace, fat burning keeps on going even after the exercise.

3. by alternating between comfortable and intense paces, you can extend your cardio workout long enough to maximize the length of time that your body is in the fat burning zone.

Your metabolism increases and this allows you to essentially burn fat after your workout while you’re eating and watching your favorite TV show, even though you would have worked out for far less than usual! This sounds too good to be true but can be validated with any fitness professional. And who’s saying you can’t you try it out yourself?